Business Challenge
A tools manufacturer and distributor was experiencing an unexpected rise in support costs and performance problems associated with some of its key order entry, inventory management, and invoice processing applications. These applications supported its several thousand sales representatives, and the performance problems were impacting not only internal operations, but also sales force productivity. Many of the technology platforms used by the sales force had not kept up with the application requirements, and the age and diversity of the equipment was stretching the limits of technical support. In some cases, the use of older applications was even compromising the quality of customer support.
Despite on-going efforts to standardize and upgrade the end-user platforms, oftentimes the sales force would defer replacing equipment until their individual problems reached a critical stage. Unfortunately, the internal teams experiencing the pain of excessive support costs and service hits had no control over the sales force equipment replacement schedule.
Solution
Forsythe helped the company implement a customized “technology refresh” program, a Forsythe specialty. The program enables the company to replace its sales force’s laptops on a rolling basis, without administrative hassle, while transferring the cost, risk, and administration of equipment disposal to Forsythe. The technology supply and refresh program also provides fixed monthly costs to the company’s end-users and facilitates proactive managed technology replacement. Forsythe simplifies acquisition management by proactively notifying the company as each laptop approaches its end-of-life-cycle, and coordinating acquisition, delivery, and end-user billing for each machine. Payment administration is also streamlined; at the end of each month, Forsythe provides an itemized list of all the month’s acquisitions with detailed asset tracking and charge-back information, and initiates a single lease schedule for all the items. In addition, Forsythe provides a number of support services as part of the technology refresh program, including software imaging, disposal site services, and hot-sparing.
Results
By making it easy and affordable for the company and its sales force to keep their systems standardized and refreshed, Forsythe is helping the company raise the quality of its customer service—by facilitating more efficient and robust customer support from its end-user sale force, as well as improved internal support for the sales force. Through the program, Forsythe has also lowered the company’s total “cost of use” for both the equipment being refreshed and the applications it runs. In addition, Forsythe’s technology refresh program has improved pricing and service commitments on the replacement equipment.
